


Prompt thing #8

by grimmsmeatsticks



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Angst and Humor, Angsty Schmoop, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-15
Updated: 2015-10-15
Packaged: 2018-04-26 13:25:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5006428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimmsmeatsticks/pseuds/grimmsmeatsticks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Tell me about the killer chimpanzee.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prompt thing #8

Bones sits down on the wheeled stool in Med. Room 9. His skin has that matte, dry look to it that it gets whenever he’s pulled one too many shifts with no break and too much damned caffeine and stimulants to keep him going. The circles under his eyes are so  dark that they look like bruises. The dehydrated skin makes the frown lines on his forehead look like the deep groves of a canyon seen from above. He looks about sixty right now, and the drained sigh that escapes him makes it clear that he feels just as old. 

“You look like shit,” Jim says from the biobed. He offers him a smile that is only halfway visible. The rest of it, along with most of Jim’s face, is covered by bandages. 

The attempt at a lighthearted tease does  _not_  go down well. Bones’ face darkens and he lets out another one of those exhausted sighs. “Tell me about the killer chimpanzee, Jim.”

“It was just meant-” Jim starts but stops when Bones puts a hand up. It’s a clear signal for him to shut up. “I don’t want to hear excuses. Jim, I want to know why I had to spend my day reattaching your forearm to your elbow and picking fragments of skull out of your brain, and why I had to puzzle your face back together. I want to know why I’ll be spending all of the coming month trying to make sure you don’t scar. I want to know why Spock is on the bridge right now and frantically trying to prevent a damned  _galactic war_  from breaking out because the goddamn captain of the goddamn flagship decided that rather than leading negotiations to persuade the Calians to join the federation and bring peace to the sector, he would desecrate their holy temple and piss off every single planet in the solar system by losing their god. I wanna know why Sulu is going to be stuck in the osteoregenerator for the next week because he’s broken every damned bone in his body, and why Scotty will be in a coma for god knows how long. I  _do not_  want any excuses or “it was just”s. It wasn’t “just”. It was a pretty big, goddamn fuck-up, Jim, and I wanna know what on Earth made you decide to do it!”

Jim’s squirm has nothing to do with physical discomfort. It’s the look Bones is giving him that makes it hurt. He sighs and quietly mumbles: “…. but he looked so miserable in that cage, Bones…”

“Jim. The Giant Golden Calian ape has been worshipped by these people for thousands of years. The goddamn monkey is the damned life force of the planet. It’s a wild beast and who knows what’ll happen now that it-”

“But that’s just it,” Jim exclaims. “Those people came here on a fluke and trapped him and he’s been sitting in that cage ever since, and for what? So they can claim to worship him while taking over his planet? Bullshit. It’s not worship. It’s torture. Imagine being trapped in some gilded fucking cage on top of a mountain and being forced to spend the next ten thousand years with nothing to do but to stare at the jungle you used live in and wishing you could go back and be free- He was miserable, Bones. I could see it in his eyes. I… I could feel it,” Jim whimpers and then goes right back to fiery anger over the injustice of it all. “He deserved to get back out there. It’s where he belongs. Fuck what the Calians say!”

Bones pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. He doesn’t look surprised, but he doesn’t look as angry as earlier either. “You still can’t just- Look at you, Jim! Look at Sulu and Scotty!”

“Yeaaah…” Jim says with another guilty squirm. “We thought he’d understand that we were helping. That he’d be more interested in getting away than any kind of revenge- Didn’t expect him to go on a rampage on the temple. He looked so peaceful in that cage… and a lot… smaller.”

“And Scotty and Sulu just wanted to help their brave captain, I suppose?”

“Well, they were there and they saw it, too. We all kinda looked at each other and agreed it was the only humane thing to do. You would have agreed if you’d been there, and I would never have let them stay around for the cage opening if I’d known the ape would go bananas.” Despite the severity of the conversation, Jim still stops and giggles at his own stupid joke, and it makes Bones roll his eyes with annoyance. “Bad timing, Jim. Really bad goddamn timing.”

“I know. I’m sorry, but I do mean it! I never meant for them to get hurt,” Jim says and there’s the first hint of true regret in his voice. “I know, kid,” Bones says and gives Jim’s uninjured hand a squeeze. “Bettin’ that was why you threw yourself at the thing? Which I gotta admit was pretty brave, but so damned stupid I don’t even know where to start…”

“Yeah- But I was scared, okay? I was scared they’d end up dead and none of us had a phaser or anything that could be used so I just kinda… You know, went with it. At least it worked, right? They’ll be okay!”

“They’ll pull through, yeah, but I wouldn’t say it worked, Jim. My staff and I were picking up pieces of you all along that trail to the edge of the jungle, where we found your body.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t say it like that, Bones. It wasn’t that bad. You’re saying it like I was dead or something, and I’m clearly not. So no problem, right?” Jim strokes the back of Bones’ hand and tries for half a smile. Bones looks away to try and hide how tears are pooling in his eyes. “It almost was, Jim. You have to learn to remember that I’m just a simple doctor. I ain’t no necromancer. If you d- If you die on me, I won’t be able to bring you back-” Bones’ voice cracks and he lets go of Jim’s hand so he can wipe his eyes. Jim flails to get the hand back. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Bones. I just wanted to help the thing. I didn’t think it would hurt anyone. Didn’t think…” He trails off and blinks away tears of his own, and he looks utterly lost until Bones finally takes his hand again.

“I know,” Bones says. “It’s what you always do. You always try to help and never give a damn if the price is your own head.” He sniffs and gives Jim a heartbroken smile. “Dammit, kid. Why do you have to be so goddamn good all the time?”

Jim frowns. “I’m not. I’m an idiot. You keep reminding me that I’m the “biggest dang fool that ever lived”, remember?” Jim tries his best to mimic Bones’ hint of an accent and the angry face the doctor usually makes. He fails miserably at both, but it’s just the thing to make Bones laugh a little. “You are, Jim, and I guess I am, too,” Bones says.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

That makes Jim light up.

Bones scoots his stool a little closer and kisses the back of Jim’s hand, and presses it to his cheek. For a moment, they both sit there in silence and let the raw and painful emotions ebb away.

Once the air is breathable again, Bones breaks that silence by leaning in with a more genuine smile. “Did I ever tell you about my kindergarten trip to the Savannah Bird Sanctuary?”

“No. Tell me,” Jim says curiously.

Bones nods and leans in even a little closer so he can lower his voice to a whisper. “So the school took us on this field trip, obviously, to see the birds and have a little fun, and you know me. I like animals. Better than humans, in some cases.”

Jim nods, both to agree and to urge Bones to keep going.

“And I was kind of a brat when I was a kid-”

“You were awesome,” Jim says with a little smile. He’s heard so many stories about Bones when he was a kid, and he loves them all. “You just say that ‘cause I acted like the stupid little fool you act like now,” Bones says.

“I know,” Jim says and he’s very close to grinning even if it hurts to smile that wide.

“Brat,” Bones says with a smile and Jim can’t hold back the grin. “But anyway, I didn’t like seeing the big birds in those little cages. They didn’t have room to fly around and- you gotta remember I was about five- I start bawling my eyes out ‘cause of these poor damned birds. I felt so bad for ‘em.”

“Such a cute little baby Leonard..” Jim mocks.

“Shut the hell up,” Bones says.  “So they took me to the office so I could sit there with one of the junior caretakers and have some hot cocoa and calm down while the others finished the tour-”

“Will you take me to your office and give me hot chocolate if I cry?”

“No.”

“Aww, no fair.”

“Shut up.”

“Asshole.”

“So there I was, feet dangling off the chair and the biggest cup of cocoa ever all to myself. Stopped my cryin’ in no time. The girl they left in charge of me figured I’d be happy with there with my hot cocoa and my marshmallows and so she left me to sit there alone while she went back to her post-”

“And that’s when you torched the place!”

“NO! Jim, dammit! Lemme finish!”  
  
“If you promise you’ll give me hot chocolate after.”

“No. You can’t even drink it right now.”

“I can if you feed it to me….”

“…  ANYWAY, I was happy for a little bit, then I realized the computer was on. So I… y’know… got into the system and unlocked all the cages.”

“All of them?”

“All of them.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. I ain’t braggin’ when I say I’m a goddamn genius. Had that whole computer thing figured out in no time… but I was also five, so I was a damn moron and didn’t think about what I was doing. Had no clue that when I unlocked all the cages, I didn’t just release everything that was out in the display park, but also the ones in the research facilities-”

“Oh fuck.”

“Yeah. They had a small flock of Andorian Blood Parrots there-”

“Oh fuck.”

“Gettin’ it now, huh?”

Jim nods.

“Yeah, exactly. That would be why Georgia and Alabama have had a pest issue with Andorian Blood Parrots for the past thirty-somethin’ years, and last I heard massive flocks of ‘em where taking over territories in Florida, too, and it’s just gettin’ worse.”

“Oh my god, Bones. You fucked up nature.”

“Yeah, I did. So next time you get the urge to let something outta its cage-”

“I’ll remember that you did the same and it’s okay,” Jim says and visible part of his face splits into a grin. Bones sputters. “What? What? NO, DAMMIT! You remember not to act like a damned five year old. Did you not hear a word I said? Shit has  _consequences_!”

“I heard you mention hot chocolate?”

“Oh for the love of-” Bones’ face turns red and he jumps to his feet with an annoyed groan. “Goddammit, I hate you,” he says and stomps off. 

“I love you, too,” Jim says quietly and settles down to wait for his hot chocolate. 


End file.
